Experts?

Wow.  What a day.  First I woke up late.  Actually that's wrong.  I woke up too early and accidentally fell back to sleep waiting for time to get my oldest boys up.  Then I woke up 5 minutes before I should have left to make the appointment.  We were only 5 minutes late and I ended up having to carry the baby too!  Whew.

The plumber was here when I returned home.  Someone will be in tomorrow to pump our septic tank.  It could've been worse.  I've lived in a home that had to have most of the outside pipes replaced.  Now that's a bad day.  Course with a new plumbing appointment, our field trip plans go out the door.  Perhaps we can go later in the week...

My day seemed absolutely uneventful in comparison to someone I know who was just forbidden from homeschooling.  By an expert.  That is against the law.  Unless there has been some serious legislation slipped in, the right to raise and educate your child still exists.  Now this poor woman has to deal with someone blatantly crossing the line who happens to have a small amount of power and authority.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Small power is sometimes worse because it can be a heavy sledgehammer used to beat some into submission.  It can be used to make life hell on earth even when it is completely wrong. 

I have taught at a private school.  I have been a long term substitute at a public school.  I have taken teaching classes.  I do not have my degree, nor do I particularly want it.  I learned a very valuable lesson sitting in those classes, listening to the professors, especially through the lens of having been in a classroom.  The one thing a teacher is an expert in is filling out paperwork.  A teacher takes dozens of classes on how to fill out IEPs, how to fill out discipline forms, how to repeat the test, what form to fill out if too many kids can't regurgitate the test information, how to fill out requests for assistance on several levels, how to keep control of a classroom on paper, how to fill out attendance forms, how to transfer lesson plans from the curriculum onto the form to be turned into the office, you get the point.  They are taught how to be buried in mountains of paperwork where the only thing they want is quiet so they can work.  When thrown into a classroom with 20-30 children, survival becomes top priority.  The twenty something new teacher who may or may not have any kids is now facing a flood of short people.  For younger ages, that flood is people who are too young to be forced to sit in chairs like an unhappy adult in an office cubicle.  Young kids should be up moving, counting clouds and trees, building towers, making letters out of mud.  These "experts" are taught how to do nothing to create a love of learning or how to help a child learn to think for themselves.  Both of these things are necessary in life.  Being able to fill in a circle has rarely been a necessity for me in the real world.  Sitting quietly in a roomful of equally aged persons has never been an issue.  It is easy to see how a student graduates high school with honors and without the ability to read anything beyond picture books. 

My hubby was undecided to uncaring about our homeschooling when it first came up.  He'd been teaching for 2 years when our oldest was born.  He had a physics degree earned the decade before.  He was taking the teaching classes in his spare time to get certified.  It wasn't until he ended up in the recertification classes and on committees to chose curriculum before he really got it.  He dealt with other teachers, some at levels that would have been  his son's teacher, and finally understood.  He actually told one that we homeschooled so that our 5 year old son wouldn't have to deal with someone less intelligent than he was.  No malice, just simple fact.  By the time he had that conversation, the boy already had a better understanding of the physics concept the teachers had been discussing than the gentlemen to whom my hubby was speaking. 

There are so many experts now.  Makes you wonder why there is so much trouble.  Is that because of or in spite of all those experts?  I firmly believe that if parents would step up, get themselves and their kids back in church, and paid attention, the experts would become even more useless, if that is even possible.

Just visited my facebook page.  This ad was posted alongside it.  This could explain some things.

"Quality Teachers are in short supply. Get your BS/MS in Education in as little as 1 Year."  

Quality masters in one year?  Guess it shouldn't take multiple years to learn how to fill out paperwork.  So very thankful that I am blessed to be able to homeschool.